Suspended from Facebook for posted photo of a vegetable, spiritual leader Rael calls for protests against Facebook policy of “western puritanism"

LAS VEGAS, Aug. 30 – International spiritual leader Rael, blocked by Facebook for posting a photo of a vegetable that resembled a woman’s posterior, today called for “protests against puritanism.”

In his statement released this morning, the founder and spiritual leader of the International Raelian Movement said his Facebook account was suspended “for posting a picture of a squash shaped like a woman’s rear.” The actual picture can be seen here: http://raelpress.org/request.php?116

“The level of puritanism in Facebook’s policies is staggering,” Rael commented. “Anyone can see that the forbidden picture portrayed a squash, but the Facebook robots given shape recognition tasks probably can’t.”

For Rael, the policy applied by Facebook is an illustration of Judeo-Christian morality, which he says is both paralyzing Western civilization and spreading to the millions of Facebook subscribers who have to comply with that morality.

“Millions of young Facebook users are being taught through their use of this media that displaying nudity or any image that could relate to nudity is a [Facebook] sin,” Rael said. “They’re having to comply with a religious culture that isn’t always the one they’ve chosen. I ask all Raelians and all those who have had enough of bans and blockages to protest against the puritanism involved in Facebook policy. Seeing images of nude female or male anatomy cannot hurt anyone, while seeing scenes of violence does. Yet the violent scenes are not banned. Facebook must review its responsibility, and do so not based on American culture but on scientific evidence about what is really hurting the human brain.”

Rael is a fierce advocate of the right to use and show one’s body as he or she pleases. He inspired the Gotopless parades that took place on August 26 in 40 major cities worldwide.